History of the sport horse
The sport horse wasn’t the horse that we now know. The horse has changed enormous the past thousand years. It changed from workhorse to sport horse. A horse is originally a wild animal, but now tamed by human. Way back they were used for: farming, conduct war and transportation.
Use of horses
Farmer used the horses because of there great power. Horses ploughed the land. With hand this was almost impossible. In the forest the horses used to drag heavy trees. In 5000 before Christ Mongolian archers used horses. They were much quicker by using a horse. So people came up with the idea using it for war.
Before World War I horses were deployed for war. At that time it was winning or losing a war, depending on which party had the best horses and riders. Soldiers were so dependent on their horses that they treated the horses better than their wife and children. The soldiers were instructed to first take care of their horse and after for them self.
During the First Wold War, this changed. Because this was a trench war, horses were unusable. However horses were used for sending information and the transport of goods, like weapons, ammunition and food. Important message could be send real quick in times of need.
Cold and warmblood horses
Earlier you had already a lot of different horses. Only people were not really concerned with the appearance of horses. They bred horses only to get better and more horses. You had two different types, cold blood and warmblood horses. (Read here about Dutch warmblood horses) Warmblood horses mainly used to drive and cold blood were widely used for farming. That’s because cold blood horses are heavier and stronger.
But with the mechanization of agriculture and the materialization of the car the horse lost his practical function. As a result the function of the horse changed. First used for work and transportation and now only for the pleasure of human. A big history behind the sport horses that we know nowadays.